I’m writing it to communicate with my friends and family who are scattered across the globe and to make new friends too. But mostly I’m writing it for myself, for the creative expression of myself, for the release it brings me and for the sanity I hold onto because of it.

I hope you enjoy reading and will comment and return again and again. I like to develop intimate relationships with the people who read me, so please, introduce yourselves….don’t be shy 🙂 .

I had been trying for a good long while to come up with an ‘About Me’ page, but I feared I would end up writing a whole novel! So instead, here is a poem called The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer which describes who I am more fully than any biographical description ever could.

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

This poem is nice, but what I do not like about life-affirming poems and messages is that they subtly imply that the people that do not ‘live life to the fullest’ are somehow not living up to their potential as a human being. And I really dislike this notion because it belittles all of the hard working people that have sacrificed their pursuit of life ‘full throttle’ for the benefit of others around them. Parents specifically come to mind.

@kurt: Thanks for your insightful comment! I really appreciate the time you took to respond.

However, let me ask you this….how is parenting sacrificing a “pursuit of life”? Surely you can apply these principles to parenting? And who is to say what “living life to the fullest is” anyway? It is many different things, to many different people. People who have sacrificed their pursuit of life ‘full throttle’ for the benefit of others around them, may be living life to THEIR fullest. Only that individual can know.

It is my sincere belief that there is no such thing as “sacrifice”. Everyone who “sacrifices” is getting something out of it, even if it’s just the warm fuzzy feeling of doing something for someone else. This is in no way “belittling”, but actually empowering.